Theme: Andante.
Variations:
I. “C.A.E.” L’istesso tempo
II. “H.D.S.-P.” Allegro
III. “R.B.T.” Allegretto
IV. “W.M.B.” Allegro di molto
V. “R.P.A.” Moderato
VI. “Ysobel” Andantino
VII. “Troyte” Presto
VIII. “W.N.” Allegretto
IX. “Nimrod” Moderato
X. “Dorabella—Intermezzo.” Allegro
XI. “G.R.S.” Allegro di molto
XII. “B.G.N.” Andante
XIII. “X.X.X.—Romanza.” Moderato
XIV. “E.D.U.—Finale”
Elgar’s Variations were once regarded as a brilliant show-piece for an
orchestra. There was a time when Elgar was held to be a “great”
composer. Time, the Old Man with a Scythe, has a disconcerting way of
handling it. The music with a few exceptions seems at the best
respectable in a middle-class manner; the sort of music that gives the
composer the degree of Mus. Doc. from an English university. In Elgar’s
case, his music won him knighthood, and to this day there are “Elgar
Festivals” in England. Was Cecil Gray too severe when he wrote of Elgar:
“He never gets entirely away from the atmosphere of pale, cultured
idealism and the unconsciously hypocritical, self-righteous, Pharisaical
gentlemanliness which is so characteristic of British art in the last
century”?
* * *
These Variations, composed at Malvern in 1899, were first performed at
one of Hans Richter’s concerts in London, June 19, 1899. Mr. Felix
Borowski, the excellent editor of the Chicago Orchestra’s Programme
Books, says: “Richter had never met the English composer when, in
Vienna, he received the score of the Variations from his agent in the
British capital; but the conductor determined to exploit a work which
appeared to him to possess qualities of strength and skill that had not
been made evident in many English compositions. ‘The _Enigma_
Variations,’ wrote Robert J. Buckley, ‘toured by Richter’s band, set the
seal on Elgar’s reputation. Richter did for Elgar what he had done for
Wagner thirty years before. England was won for Wagner by Richter and
the _Tannhäuser_ overture. England was won for Elgar by Richter and the
_Enigma_ Variations.’[25] It should, however, be pointed out that the
Variations, as produced by Richter in June, 1899, were not quite the
same composition as that which has been made familiar to every
concert-going audience in the world. After the first performance, Elgar,
at the instigation of Hans Richter, added a _coda_, and he made various
changes in the orchestration throughout the piece. In this revised form
it was produced at the Worcester Festival, the composer conducting his
work, September 13, 1899.” The Variations were first played in Germany
at a concert of the Städtische Musikverein, Düsseldorf, February 7,
1901; Julius Buths, conductor.
The score, which includes a theme and fourteen variations, is dedicated
by the composer to his “friends pictured within.” Elgar himself said:
“It is true that I have sketched, for their amusement and mine, the
idiosyncrasies of fourteen of my friends, not necessarily musicians; but
this is a personal matter and need not have been mentioned publicly. The
Variations should stand simply as a ‘piece’ of music. The Enigma I will
not explain—its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you
that the apparent connection between the Variations and the theme is
often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set
another and larger theme ‘goes’ but is not played.... So the principal
theme never appears, even as in some late dramas—e.g., Maeterlinck’s
_L’Intruse_ and _Les Sept Princesses_: the chief character is never on
the stage.”
Elgar’s work is scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two
clarinets, two bassoons, double bassoon, four horns, three trumpets,
three trombones, bass tuba, snare drum, bass drum, triangle, cymbals,
organ (_ad lib._), and strings.